


Unable Are the Loved to Die

by Cornerofmadness



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 09:11:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8439850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornerofmadness/pseuds/Cornerofmadness
Summary: A sickness is sweeping the land and it has come to roost in the Elric home.





	

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer** \-- Arakawa owns them, I’m just playing with her creation  
>  **Warning** \-- angst  
>  **Author’s Note** \-- This was written for the 2016 challenge. I barely got it done, such a crazy month. Here’s my prompt (Art work by Eric LaCombe) and oh I cribbed the title from an Emily Dickinson poem. [](http://s879.photobucket.com/user/spook_me/media/Spook%20Me%202016/Eric-Lacombe-13_zpshovl3z0f.jpg.html)

Ed's breath shuddered out. He dragged in another deep breath, recognizing it held no power to help calm him. He desperately chased after that calm; he needed it to think. He was useless to Al and the bastard if his mind was a jangly mess of short circuiting thoughts. _You're useless to them, anyhow. You gave away the only thing of importance you ever had._

Forcing his self-doubts away, Ed turned back to the array of alembic glassware. He was brewing some herbal concoction Al had found in an alkahestry book from Xing. The brew might slow down the patients’ cough. He might have given up his alchemy but this sort of the science was no more complicated than making soup. He hadn't given up his ability to read and follow instructions. He was capable of simple alchemy and its sister chemistry. It was being able to add to the science, to unlock its more intricate secrets. Ed had lost an understanding of the universe. On a little stove in the corner, he had water set to boil.

Not that it would have helped him here. It hadn't helped anyone working on the case. Maybe he, Al and Mustang hadn't taken it seriously enough at first. Logically he knew it wasn't all on their shoulders. Dozens of doctors and alchemists were working on finding a cure. No one knew where the disease had started, not for certain or entirely how it spread. All they knew was it crept slowly across the southwest corner of Amestris, gaining momentum when it touched on more populated areas of the country. It had left ghost towns in its wake and those who did survive it were left scarred. 

It seemed so distant, so big city problem. They thought they had time to work out a solution. Then it touched the country. Upstairs Ed’s little girl and his eldest boy lay in their beds, slowly fading. They were all too terrified to think. That was the one thing they couldn't afford. Ed struggled with wading through dusty old volumes, fighting with knowledge that once came so easily. He was up nights with Alphonse and Mustang and even Armstrong. Alex Louis's alchemy had nothing to do with healing and he fared little better than Edward but he tried.

Grumman called a state of emergency, bringing in the best and brightest minds but the disease marched on. They had sent letters away to Emperor Ling but even with the new trains, it would take too long for Ed's children. The Xingese did better with healing, and maybe they would be able to put a final stop to this but not soon enough. Would anything be soon enough?

Ed shuddered, trying not to picture himself back at the cemetery. He couldn't put his children in the ground next to his parents, next to Granny. The memory of his frantic attempts to bring back his mother bubbled up. Ed couldn't go that step any more to save his children but he would if it were possible, even knowing what he did. There had to be a way, and he would give his life for them.

The tea pot whistled, and Ed snatched it off the stove. Making tea, fortifying the researchers, that was his biggest contribution. As the tea brewed, Ed rubbed his chin, scrubbing his fingers in his beard. The damned thing itched but all of them were sporting them. No one wanted to waste time with shaving. Ed had caught his reflection in the mirror, and thought Hohenheim was staring back at him. How the hell had he turned into his father? Mustang's beard made him look demonic. By rights that should have been Ed. Yes, the thought was childish, that was him from when Al was still metal but it felt good, like a little light in the dark, like there was hope he'd get back to the days when they were all sitting around joking and picking on each other like the old days.

Ed took the tea to the library. Al and Roy barely looked up as he set the cups in front of them.

“I can't get a handle on any of this. It's like a time bomb,” Roy grumbled.

Before Ed could respond a loud round of barking coughs echoed from upstairs.

Al looked at him. “Go be with Winry and the kids for a bit, Ed. We're at a stand still here.”

“I can do more….” Ed's shoulders slump. “I'm kidding myself. I'll be back shortly.”

Ed climbed the stairs. The smell of sickness hit him by the time he crested the top step. Bracing himself, Ed walked into Zachary's bedroom. They had him and Evelyn in the same bed away from their siblings, hoping to stem the transmission of infection. How long before they all had it, before Winry was lying under the grass too? Before he was?

Winry glanced up at him, hopelessness dimming her eyes. He could see the exhaustion etched into her face. He thumped down next to her at the edge of the bed. Their children didn't seem to recognize he was there but they'd been delusional for the last two days.

“They sound worse,” he whispered.

She shook her head. “About the same.”

“Winry, we're losing. I don't know what to do.”

She said nothing. Instead, Winry slipped her arms around him.

“Mustang's right. This is a time bomb waiting to destroy the whole country.”

“Someone will find a way to stop it. They always do.”

“If I hadn't given up my alchemy...”

“Then we all might have died at the Promised Day, be screaming voices inside a Philosopher's Stone. Your brother and Roy are highly intelligent men, Edward. They're doing all they can.”

“I know...I, oh, damn. Time bomb....” Ed broke free of her embrace. “I have an idea. I'll be back.”

Ed stampeded downstairs, nearly colliding with the door as he slid into the library. “Time bomb!” he bellowed making them jump.

“What?” Al blinked.

“Mustang's time bomb commented reminded me of something. Remember at the beginning of this we thought it almost seemed like a transmutation in the way it was being transmitted?”

“Yes but we couldn't figure out how that could be. The alchemist would have to be nearby,” Al replied.

“That's where we were wrong.” Ed pointed at Roy. “Remember Kimbley's transmutations?”

“I could hardly forget. I was in the war with him.” Roy scowled. 

“Do you remember he could put a time delay on his bombs?” Ed asked, and Roy's eyes widened.

“Fuck.”

“Right. What if this isn't really a disease? What if it is some kind of miniature dust bomb, something light enough to float on the air? Could there be something that mimics pneumonia and some of the other symptoms?”

Roy nodded as did Al. “Plenty of things,” Roy said. “Hell, even smoke from a fire can rip up lungs.”

“And if the powder was something toxic, it could cause something like this.” Al stood up so fast his chair fell over. He ran and got something off a shelf. “Poisons. Let's start looking for something that matches the symptoms.”

Ed took the books gratefully. This was something he could do. Al and Roy would have to come up with something that counteracts the transmutation but simple poison? He could track that down. “Let me get Winry. She can help.”

As Ed raced up the stairs, he felt hope for the first time in what felt like forever.

XXX

Ed watched Evelyn playing tag with Zachary and the rest of their siblings in the yard under the bright sun. They were still weak but they were mending. The whole damn country was mending based on what they had learned, what they had devised to stop it. Al had gone on to the south to spread the information on how to stop the spread and Roy back to Central and points west.

Winry sat on the porch with him. “What happens now? Someone did this on purpose.”

“I know. That's Mustang's headache. He's already forming a task force to find whoever's responsible. Al will be helping. He wanted me to help but I can't leave, not after what happened.”

Winry leaned against his shoulder. “If it will help, maybe you should. Not right this moment, but in a few days when things settle.”

Ed sighed. “Maybe you're right but not today. I'm going to sit here and enjoy all of this. Life's too short. I've missed so much already. Leave Mustang to save the world, I've already saved my little piece of it. I might have insight but so do a lot of people.”

“You are definitely not like a lot of people.” Winry smiled.

Ed took her hand. “I'll help him save the world next week.”

“I have no doubts.”

Neither did Ed, and the world could wait. He already had his happy ending.


End file.
